Judge Nor Bee Ariffin, in affirming the order, said the appeals court agreed with a preliminary objection raised by businessman Azrul Hadrav Abdullah’s lawyers that the government’s appeal was defective.

The government and police wanted to challenge the High Court’s order in awarding Azrul a sum of RM75,000 for loss of liberty as well as a total of RM60,000 for his four days’ detention.

They are not appealing against the RM100,000 in exemplary damages awarded to Azrul.

“Since the subject matter in this appeal is on the quantum of damages (RM135,000), which is below RM250,000, the government needs to obtain leave first under Section 68 of the Court of Jurisdiction Act,” Nor Bee said.

The other judges on the panel were Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Mariana Yahya.

The court awarded RM1,000 as costs to Azrul.

Azrul, a former air force officer, had sued the government, the police and then officer-in-charge Norzamani Zim in December 2017 on grounds that the authorities had breached their statutory duties in wrongfully detaining him.

He also said he was not told the reason for his arrest.

In the High Court’s ruling, Judge Mohd Firuz Jaffril noted that Azrul was arrested on Jan 9, 2017 and taken to the Johor Bahru magistrates’ court to obtain a remand order but it was rejected.

“The court ordered him to be released but that did not happen. He was instead taken to the Johor police headquarters and rearrested.

“There was no grounds provided for his second arrest except for a Tanjung Kupang police report,” Firuz said, adding that the remand application for the second arrest was also dismissed by the magistrates’ court.

Firul said that for Azrul’s third arrest, he was taken to the Kuantan police station to secure another remand but the application was again rejected.

“Police wanted to take him to Sepang for a fourth arrest but, miraculously, that did not happen,” he said, adding the businessman’s constitutional rights were breached when he was not told why he was arrested.

Earlier today, Azrul’s lawyer, Amareson K Velu, told the court that no leave was granted to hear the government’s appeal to challenge the damages.

“The appeal today is against the RM135,000, not the liability. So the government needs to obtain leave first,” he said.

Senior federal counsel Nik Mohd Noor Nik Kar, appearing for the government and police, told the court they had been taken aback over the preliminary objection.

“Previously, the court had set April to hear this appeal but the hearing could not proceed because of time constraints. The respondent (Azrul) did not raise this issue then.

“The court then fixed another hearing in September but the respondent requested the case to be vacated. Again, they did not raise the preliminary issue,” he said, adding that the Attorney-General’s Chambers was only informed about it on Monday.

As such, Nik Mohd Noor said, the preliminary objection should not be considered by the court.